Go here and find out where you stand in the line of richest people in the world. I found out I'm the 103,478,261st richest person and in the top 2% of richest people in the world.
As I've said before, it's all a matter of perspective, isn't it?
It certainly makes passages such as:
23Then Jesus said to his disciples, "I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."
and
24"But woe to you who are rich,
for you have already received your comfort.
25Woe to you who are well fed now,
for you will go hungry.
Woe to you who laugh now,
for you will mourn and weep.
and
10But the one who is rich should take pride in his low position, because he will pass away like a wild flower. 11For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the plant; its blossom falls and its beauty is destroyed. In the same way, the rich man will fade away even while he goes about his business.
and
1Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming upon you. 2Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. 3Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days.
a little more convicting - for me.
5 comments:
This says a lot about America...even though I love this land and it's freedoms, I see a lot of saturation of materialism in people - myself included.
I wonder what other countries would look like if we took everything we had 'stored' (or horded, depends on how you look at it) in our garages all over the US and gave it to those in need.
Sometimes even our homeless here in the states have great riches (shelters with food) compared to those in other countries.
I don't doubt that most of us in the US would be in the top category and it is convicting..but I also know that there are people who are considered "rich" with generous hearts and who give their resources and I think it's unfair to throw these verses at them
I agree Rochelle, but those verses aren't talking about all rich people. If you look at the last verse I posted, it says "rich who hoard their wealth".
I agree with Shane Claiborne that there needs to be a third way in our theology of financial matters. Right now there is 1) a theology of riches, which basically states that God wants everyone to be rich and successful; and 2) a theology of poverty, which says that everyone should be poor and homeless. Claiborne says that we should have a theology of abundance - that God has given the world enough money for everyone to survive and thrive, it just needs to be redistributed equally. And there are some rich people who are doing that. But there are a lot of rich people who aren't.
And, when I said that those passages should become more convicting - I meant to me, since according to the wealth of the entire world, I am indeed rich. I'm not judging anyone else, only myself.
Adam
Thanks for clearing up the "rich" part for me I agree with Shane Claiborne and the distribution of the wealth I wonder why we can't figure that piece out? Selfishness I guess :(
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